Korean in Korea

After the first step

2010-02-25T21:49:00.002-05:00

Okay, I have decided to continue blogging. If you want to read about what is happening to me, please go to this link.

http://afterthefirststep.blogspot.com/2010/02/after-first-step.html

I plan to blog about my time in Thailand, Japan, and everywhere else.

Why I'm so bitter.

2010-01-21T00:47:00.002-05:00

Korea has taught me a lot of things but no life lesson better than never trust a rat. I left Korea a very pissed off person and sorry I ever went.

It's be a few months now and I'm feeling better. I was robbed out of 5 thousand dollars, thanks to Steve Jung and Pagoda Jr. I'm not sorry that I went to Korea. Korea was great and so were most of the people. It's the people you sometimes work for that makes you feel so much resentment. So lesson learned and I'm better for it. Even if I'm also poorer.

Wonder what I'm doing now or want to know how I felt as I left Korea. Well wonder no more.

Here is a link to my last day in Korea http://withbackpack.wordpress.com/category/south-korea/incheon/

What am I doing now? Look right here. http://withbackpack.wordpress.com/category/thailand/

Hopefully, you enjoyed my blog.

-Mark-

I wish you would step back from that ledge my friend

2009-09-30T06:37:00.022-04:00

Well a lot has happened from when I last posted. I guess being busy is a good thing. I'm always on some kind of adventure. Life has shown that sometimes you have to create your fun. I did that earlier this month.

The Picnic

As mundane as a picnic might seem to you, it can be quite the little adventure if you plan it out correctly. I had Taryn, Tom, Momo, and Josie over for a picnic at a local park near my house. I cooked about 2 lbs. of rice and bought about 4 lbs. of meat. Josie and I also prepared onions, mushrooms, garlic, and green leaves for samgyupsal. Of course, you can't eat it without some (or a lot ) of soju.

We setup our portable grill and placed our blanket on the middle of the steps. This place was perfect for two reasons. First, it's close to the park. Second, random Koreans would walk by and stare at the glory that was our picnic.

Now being the clever person that I was, I told Tom that we couldn't waste any food. This, unfortunately, wasn't the best idea. I figured that the more we ate the less we had to carry back. Not only was there a ton a food but the girls could only eat so much. To my surprise, the 140 lbs Tom ate more than I did. Haha. All the food was devoured, but I could bearly move from all that meat.

After a bit of aerobie, we decided to play some badminton. You be surprised how difficult the game can be when you're full of food... and drunk. No suprise, that I beat everyone and reigned supreme for a bit. However, Josie put me in my place quick enough.

We sat down on the bench and watched this older couple play for a while. They made us look like a bunch of amateurs. After while, I think they started to get annoyed by our ohhs and ahhs.

Songdo

One Saturday, Josie and I decided to visit Songdo. The city opened about a month ago and I hadn't been there yet. We took the subway about four stops from my apartment. We got out near Songdo Technopark. As we got to the top of the subway, we stopped into a coffee shop. To our great surprise, the coffee shop owner had meet the present of Korea. She had a picture of her standing next to him. I, of course, felt the need to take a picture with her. So now I'm only two degrees of separation from Korea's president.

We walked around the park and couldn't help notice all the people doing some type of Thi Chi. I guess they were trying to promote calmness and inner peace. Then again, they also seemed to be freaking out about swine flu at the same time. I couldn't tell you the number of times I had my hand sprayed with sanitizer. It would be a person with OCPD paradise.

One of the more rememberable moments from this trip was the pyramid. Josie was picked for this free energy restoration. This involved her sitting in this pyramid made of copper tubing and having a man wave his hands up and down near her head. He kept telling her to relax and keep looking forward. It was creeping me out and I think she was feeling the same. She kept trying to leave without being rude, but the man yelled at her to still. After what felt like forever, he finally her go.

I also walked into a booth which had a flugun. Now Korea really needs to pick out better names for it's inventions. It's not a gun and it doesn't give you the flu. It's more like a reverse Dustbuster that shoots out some smoke that kills the flu germs... Or at least, that was what I was was led to believe.

Making traveling the city easier, we found a place that rented bikes for free. We rode our bikes and found our way to Central Park. It was a large area that you had to pay to get into. Sadly, we had to travel all the way back and return our bikes before we could enter. After a few glorious hours of bike, traveling by foot seemed tedious.

What can I say about Central Park that would impress you? Ummm. Lets see.... Well nothing really. It was a place that claimed excitement and adventure, but it disappointed at every turn.

Well, I guess that's not totally true. I got to go through the foreigners line with the help of Josie. They didn't let me in until I pointed that I was with her. Then I got flu gunned again and forced to use more hand sanitizer.

There were such attractions like the tunnel that contained gourds above us, buildings that promote Korean brand names, and some of the lamest robots that I have ever seen. I'm far from impressed for what Korea think the future will be like.

One thing about Songdo I do like are the buildings. Sure, many of the buildings are the same, but I like their design. However, it's not all that different from Gangnam in Seoul.

Seodaemun Prison
This was a prison that use to hold Koreans when Japan occupied Korea. Korea now use this as propaganda against Japan…. I mean, as a history lesson.

Click on picture to see what Korea has to say about this prison. Click here to see what wiki has to say.

China Town
I went to China Town again. This time with Josie. I have to say, it was much better the second time around. The garden was in full bloom and the night setting made it all the more beautiful.

On the ledge

Instead of me telling the story, I'll let Josie tell it. This is quoted from her blog (http://withbackpack.wordpress.com/2009/09/30/kid-on-a-ledge/).

This is not a travel entry, but just a weird thing that happen to Mark and
me.

Late Sunday morning, while at Mark’s apartment, I was sitting at his desk wasting time on Facebook. I noticed a head bobbing around outside the window. I thought, at first, that someone was fixing something outside. But the person was just pacing outside the ledge.

Mark and I got up and looked outside to see what was going on. That’s when we realized that the person was just a little kid. He ran over to the corner of the building. Mark’s apartment is on the 6th floor so I panicked thinking that this kid might fall to his death. I had no idea what to do. I don’t speak Korean. How would I explain to someone what was going on before the kid falls off the ledge? I quickly took some pictures to
make it easier for us to get help.

I really didn’t have to think about this for very long, because Mark climbed out the window during my little panicky episode. He shuffled over to the kid and picked him up. Mark said the boy struggled a bit.

Mark managed to carry him over to our window and handed him over to me. I picked him up and brought him into Mark’s apartment. The kid was wear diapers and he had a bloody foot. He looked to be about six years old. He was obviously a mentally challenged kid.

I took his hand and led him through the apartment and out the door. I hoped that he would lead me to his apartment so I could tell his mom about what happened. As we walk through the hallway I saw another kid. I ask the other kid, “Is this your little brother?”

The older kid said nothing; not even in Korean. He took the diapered child’s hand
and walked him to their apartment. The parents weren’t home. Mark came over. He had his co-worker on the phone to translate. We tried talking to the older brother, but he never spoke a word.

Mark went downstairs to tell the building’s security guard what happen. I stayed upstairs. I tried to get the older brother to close the window in his apartment. He just stared at me blankly. I began to think that he too might be mentally challenged.

Then I noticed the diapered child climbing out the window again. I pushed the other boy out of the way; he was stand at the door. I ran over to the window and grabbed the younger kid. Then I locked the window myself.

Mark’s talk with the security guard didn’t go well. The guard thought he was reporting the kid as a peeping Tom. Even with the co-worker as a translator, he couldn’t make the security guard understand how dangerous the situation was. The guard just couldn’t be bothered.

When the mom finally came home we tried to talk to her. By this time we didn’t have a translator so we showed her the photos I had taken. She thanked us.

Jeju and family

2009-08-25T08:08:00.005-04:00

Sadly, I only have so much time on my hands. You'll have to make do with my pictures on facebook. Be careful with Jeju pics 2. It's for people 18+.

Jeju pics 1
Jeju pics 2 (love land)
Jeju pics 3

Okay, it's been a while since I posted and I figured that I should update my blog. How else would you know if I'm still alive? I've been very busy as of late. I had my vacation with my brother, Matt. He came to South Korea to visit me. I took off about a week so I could spend time with him. Okay, I really only took three days off (the school already had two days scheduled off) but what could I do. I work for a greedy hagwon owner.... Oh, he also made me work the Saturday that my brother came in. Like I said, I don't do this job because my boss is so great.

Anyways, it was really a great time. I spent the first few days with my brother showing him around town. On Tuesday, we went to Jeju Island. But before we got on a plane, Matt got to experience a jinju bang. He was so tired before we got there. You could have knocked him over with a feather. It's too bad that he didn't get any sleep. I don' t know how the hot rooms, hard floor, and snoring kept him up.

Jeju was a blast. Between the 40 people that came, we got along with 38 of them. Everyone just seemed to get along so well. We did so much, too. Here is a list of what we did and saw:

-Dragon's Head(Yongduam) Rock
-Jeolmul National Recreation Forest
-Hyeopchae Beach -O'sulloc Tea Farm
-Olle trail trekking
-Udo(Cow island) island & beach activities
-Horse Riding
-Loveland (look at Jeju pics 2)
-Mysterious road
-Hallim Park
-Hyeopchaegul cave
-Jusangjeoli
-Jungmun Beach
-Seogwipo Natural Forest

As you can see, we did a lot in those four days.

Afterwards, Matt and I went to Coex. I showed him a buddhist temple and the kimchi museum. The kimchi museum was underwelming at best. We later went and saw SaChoom. SaChoom is a play that involves comedy and dance. It was sorta similar to Jump and it was a real good time. I think Matt really liked it.

Sadly, my brother's time here was short. He returned home on Monday, and I went back to teaching. Although I don't mind teaching, being on vaction was something I got too used to.

I can see clearly now, the rain is gone

2009-07-08T13:30:00.003-04:00

Lots to talk about.

First this is link to my picture folder at Lotte World. This park has more of a Six Flags feel to it. I liked it better than Everland which had a Disney World feel to it.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2024604&id=1111973370&l=eecd903df7

The park itself is made up of two parts. There is an inside and an outside. There were great rides and attractions in both.

Seoul is setting up more places to rent bikes for free. Although I’m not enthusiastic about exercise, I’m always up for free stuff.

Korea has some interesting exercise equipment that you can use.

I’m not sure why they decided to grow crops next to a bike trail, but I claim the harvest for myself.

This has got to be one of the more interesting shirts I’ve seen in Korea.

Saseungbong-Do Island again. This time with a group of 40.

This island trip was great. It only rained like a hurricane the first day. My tent also had to collapse twice. Even with this kind of weather, it didn’t prevent two others and me from building a fire.

There are some kinds of people in the world that have a lot of nerve. The girl on the left side of the picture kept yelling at me when I would put wood on the fire. Funny how she didn’t help start the fire or collect any of the fire wood but felt the need to control what was done to it.

Anyways, I think the fire cheered us all up when it dried the wet wood and had decent flames.

The blue tent was suppose to be our shelter from the sun…. It instead became our drying rack for almost all the campers.

We had to have our tents near the grass line. The tide come in quite a bit at night. Lucky for us, we missed the tide by a good 25 feet.

Be sure to not the pirate flag in the background. Yeah, no one wanted to do my ninja idea instead.

I also went to Daegu and climbed Palgongsan mountain to see Gatbawi (a Buddha with a hat). His special power was to grant wishes.

I just want to note that we saw some real Native American Indians at a rest stop on the way there.

Can’t make wishes on an empty stomach. How about some Indian food?

Okay, we didn’t know how to get to a bus station. We asked a cop for directions. Instead of giving us directions, he drove us to the bus stop. Boy, I wish I could say that this was my first time in a police vehicle.

It was a very long climb to the top of the mountain. Apparently, these monks thought it was a good idea to have Buddha at the top.

To be honest, I thought he would be bigger. I made my wish but the climb back was just as long (but a bit easier).

On day two, we went to a different part of the mountain. I got to see some cool Buddhist temples and stuff.

Some one carved a Buddha on the side of the wall. He’s all over Korea.

Now that’s what I’m talking about. This is a good size Buddha.

Okay the big news. Take a look at these photos. Tell me if you notice anything different.

That’s right. My glasses are gone. I decide I’m finished with them. I just got M-Lazek at Dream Eye Clinic in Seoul. http://www.hellolasik.com/eng_site/ I still have a while before my eyes are completely healed, but I can see much better already.

World DJ Festival, bike riding, Penis Park, and caves

2009-05-28T15:20:00.003-04:00

That’s right. It says Penis Park. So if you have children around, it’s time to teach them about the birds and the bees. But first, lets take a look at what I did before hand. I went to the World DJ Festival in Seoul. It turn out to be a little bit boring but still worth the trip. It’s next to the Han river, but it take forever to walk to from the closest subway stop. I think it was there way to ensure maximum profit.

What’s this. I decided to lazy for today. I know, it wouldn’t be the first time. I posted a link to my facebook album. This way I don’t have to spend days and days uploading pictures. This first link shows pictures of the world DJ Festival and some that I took when I went bike riding. The bike riding was great mostly because I didn’t have to pay to rent the bike.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2023737&id=1111973370&l=fb05c1650b

I could have lied and said it did this to censor the kids from all that is within this link. Of course the second half contains pictures of a cave, but you know what that could represent.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2024037&id=1111973370&l=fa04a7563d

Here is why they built Penis Park:

There once lived a young maid who was engaged. One day, the maid took her husband’s boat out to sea to harvest seaweed. Her husband dropped her off at a rock that was at a distance from the beach. After promising to pick her up later, he returned to the beach to do his work. Later, the weather changed, and brought with it strong winds and pummeling waves. The man couldn’t rescue his wife and she ultimately drowned. Since then, the village people caught no fish and some said that it was because of the dead maid. To soothe the spirit of the dead maid, the village people made several wooden carvings and held religious ceremonies on her behalf. After a while, the fish slowly returned and the villagers were able to live comfortably again. The place where the maid died was named Aebawi Rock and the building where the religious ceremony is held twice a year was named Haesindang. The ceremony is still honored today as a traditional folk event.

Robot Museum

2009-05-06T00:36:00.002-04:00

The robot museum in Seoul was rather disappointing. When I heard about the robot museum, I was thinking of something comparable to Japan. I was hoping to see something like QRIO, but no such luck. I left not knowing if Koreans knew what robot really are.

If I recall, superman was not a robot.

I do give them some credit for displaying my favorite robot.

Mork!? He was a robot the whole time? My childhood was a lie.

Spider-man is not a robot. Maybe Koreans think that super heroes fit the definition of robots somehow.

Saint Joan of Arc? Oh, she must be a robot. How else could the French win a war?

Busan – Where one man meets his match

2009-05-05T09:30:00.003-04:00

My friend Josie and I decided to go to Busan for the weekend. I wanted to see more of Korea, and Busan is Korea’s second largest city. We took the KTX (train) and arrived 3 hours later.

The KTX took us to Busan Station. The place seemed okay, but it was no Seoul.

The first place we went to was the United Nations Memorial Cemetery. It’s South Korea’s tribute to all those who died keeping it communist free.

On the pathway there, we saw several statues representing different countries. I couldn’t figure out how these pieces of art depicted the countries, but I’m no artist.

I want to make it clear that the number 36 is the number of US soldiers buried here. This is not the number of US soldiers who died. Sadly that number is much higher.

The US sent 1,600,000 troops and 36,492 of those fell in battle.

This is the Wall of Remembrance. They engraved the names of all of those who died helping South Korea in the Korean war. What surprised me the most was how short the list was for all of the other countries. Americans made up more than 80% of the names.

Although the weather wasn’t hot enough for us to go swimming, we still visited Haeundae beach.

We stopped by a shopping mart looking for something to eat. As you can see, some of the employees had the (dis)pleasure of having to wear a costume.

The Gwangan Bridge, which is over 4.5 miles long, is the the longest bridge in Korea.

To be honest, we didn’t plan to go to Bexco. We sorta got lost looking for the subway. After walking for an hour, we spotted Bexco and decided to see what’s there.

The first thing we noticed was the man with the horse head. I wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. Then we started to see more and more people wearing costumes. Something was going on and we investigated to find out what.

Comic World!? What’s Comic World? Well, it ended up being an anime convention, and we decided to go (meaning me dragging Josie in).

Okay… Enough of me geeking out. We found the subway and headed to Busan Tower.

After I finished hanging out with my golden friend, we stopped by Jagalchi Market. Here you can buy the freshest fish and then go to the second floor to eat it.

If that’s too high class, you can also go on the side streets where there are plenty of people ready to serve you seafood.

The next day, we went to PIFF Square.

On the floor there are hand prints sort of like the ones you find in Hollywood. I got lucky and snagged a picture of Jeremy Irons. Can any one say Die Hard With a Vengeance?

Okay. I know what you want to see. If you remember, I said I wanted to eat live octopus. Well, here are my videos of me trying to do just that.

Okay, I know I’m stalling. What you have to remember is IT’S A FREAKING LIVE OCTOPUS.

Maybe I stalled too much. It didn’t seem to be moving, and I thought it was 100% dead. I give it a little soju, and it started moving again. Man! Is there nothing soju can’t do?

So here it is. I finally put the damn thing in my mouth.

Okay, so I couldn’t do it. I don’t like food looking back at me while I eat it. Sorry, but at least I tried. I had no problems eating this hamburger though.

Our last stop was a mini China Town.

Overall, we did a lot in the few days we were there. There was still lots to do, but I think I got a good sense of what Busan was about.

Southern South Korea

2009-04-19T13:05:00.006-04:00

This is my trip to Southern South Korea.

William (from my trip to Saseungbong-Do Island) charted the bus and organized this trip.

Our first stop was to watch the sunrise at Hyang Ir Am Temple.

Parts of the walk way required a tight squeeze.

Then we walked around some tea fields.

I was excited to see a bamboo forest near the tea fields. They were awesome. I had no idea they grew so tall.

Afterwards, we walked around the Gal Dae (Reed) Fields

We hiked up a hill real fast. We made it to the top with five minutes to spare and got to see the sun set on Soon Chun Bay.

We stayed the night at Nagan Folk Village and walked around the next day.

Careful now. The next few pictures aren't so kid friendly.

I just thought this cop seemed bad ass. So I took a picture of him. Well... Don't you agree?

The last major stop of our tour was My San Mountain. The cherry blossoms were in full bloom.

Paddle boats are lame. But swan paddle boats... are wicked cool. Okay, not so much.

Our last stop was Meta Sequoia Tree Row.

Basically, a bunch of trees in a row. I still don't get it.

A little bit of Russia and the 63 building

2009-04-06T23:17:00.013-04:00

Well you might not think of Russia when you come to Korea, but there is sorta a Russia town. I joined a group of people to celebrate a birthday. Sure, I didn't know the birthday girl, but there was food and booze. Why wouldn't I go?

The Russian food was alright. I did get to drink some real Russian vodka though. That made it worth it.

Oh... the Russian beer was quite tasty.

You can buy almost anything in a Korean subway.

I'm not sure, but I think you feed the chicks to the puppy.

Josie sitting in the wrong seat. They are suppose to be reserved for the disabled, old, and pregnant. Shame on her.

Choco pie birthday cake...

And a real birthday cake.

The 63 building is the tallest building in Korea. It was the tallest in Asia for a while.

They had an aquarium there, but it wasn't as good as the Coex building.

This is the view from the top. It was a bit foggy so you couldn't see to far.

I tried my luck at the penny press.

Sadly, it took me two tries.

The Race Track and Suwon

2009-03-30T13:16:00.011-04:00

My friend Josie and I decide to go to the racetrack. This is the only place in Korea where a Korean can legally gamble (to my knowledge). The place was okay but nothing special. There was a huge video screen that showed the races being held. To bad that most of them were at the racetrack in Pusan.

I didn't place a bet but I know the game was fixed.

The racetrack is very kid friendly. They have a petting area and even pony rides. Nothing like gambling that says bring the family.

Saw some Korean art on the subway. Funny how art imitates life.

I had me some takoyaki (Japanese Octopus Dumpling Balls). Yummm.

It was about time that I went to Suwan.

I rang this bell three times. The first was to honor my parents (or in my case parent). The second is to wish my family good health. The third was for myself. I think I wish for endless bliss or something like that.

Saint Patrick's Day and a Korean Palace

2009-03-20T10:24:00.009-04:00

Even in Korea, you can find people with a little Irish in them.

I meet up with some of my friends at an all you can drink and eat party. Check out the beer and food.

This is what happens when you drink more guinness then milk.

Megan and Simon got into a cat fight.

Simon lost.

I went on a guided tour of Changdeok Palace and Biwon, the palace's "secret garden." Changdeok Palace is the best preserved palace of the Choseon Dynasty, and may be seen only with the official guided tours. The Secret Garden is a beautiful example of the type of traditional garden of the Choseon period, and has been officially designated a UNESCO World Heritage site.

After the palace tour, we had dinner. It was my first time eating eel. I tasted sorta like white fish but for three times the price.

Picture fest

2009-03-05T09:44:00.014-05:00

The picture isn't that great but there was a street performer beatboxing.

I went with some friends to listent to some jazz/classical music.

This is me hugging a bear. Okay, I guess you could have figured that one on your own.

This is me doing my speed pose.

I ate a Butterfinger Pancakes. Sadly they didn't have butterfinger as one of the ingredients. I had to settle for blueberry.

I traveled to the east coast of Korea.

This is a picture of a captured North Korean Sub.

This sub got captured because they got stuck on some rocks. Hmmm... I guess North Koreans are bad drivers too.

Before capture the North Korean commander of the sub burnt secret documents, shot the 11 man crew and escaped with 15 soldiers. It took 49 days for the South Korean military to capture and kill most of the North Koreans.

This is a donated ship from the US. We just give them away.

This is a model of a Korean turtle ship.

I had to man the guns. North Korea was attacking.

On the coast, they still have bar wire fencing, armed guards, and a machine gun.

Afterwards, I some art. I still don't get art...

This has got to be one of the larger egg timers.

Ah.. The east coast does look nice.

No... It wasn't bad driving that caused these ships to be on land.

This is what's left of my fish soup. I left the fish heads for my evil twin, who I keep locked up in my attic.

What I like about Korea

2009-02-20T23:49:00.004-05:00

Korea has a lot of stuff that surprises me. This commercial for example.

Sometime signs get a little lost in translation.

When you get smoked chicken, you get a different kind of smoke.

He keeps going and going??

The DMZ

2009-02-16T09:36:00.009-05:00

At last! I finally made it to the DMZ. This is one of the stops you have to do while you are in Korea. I went with the USO. From what I hear, it is the best.

This is where we got briefed. We also got our name badge here. That way, they couldn't mistake us for a North Korean. It would be a shame to get shot from the wrong side.

This is a picture of the bridge of no return. Cool name, right? This is where they exchange people. When people cross this bridge, they can never come back.

This is a marker where North Koreans cut up some south Koreans with an axe. I think I would have prefer to be shot.

It was a bit foggy but the long pole in the distance holds up a North Korean flag. It's the biggest flag in the world. I think North Korea is try to compensate for something.

If you look closely, you can see a north Korean guard. He was the only one I saw during the entire trip.

South Korean guards watch north Koreans half hidden. This was they would be smaller targets. I'm sure this will work.

I was technically in North Korea when this picture was taken. Ha. I've been on both side now.

The South Korean guards look awesome in full gear. It wouldn't be complete without the shades.

These building are where South Korea and North Korea hold there "peace" talks.

After seeing a country split in two, I went to the Hard Rock Cafe to unwind.

Watering down

2009-01-29T10:45:00.006-05:00

I edited this post in the hopes to please one reader. I will now avoid any pictures that some people might find inappropriate. Even though I created this blog for my own self enjoyment and to entertain my friends and family, I do value faceless random posters' thoughts and opinions. I do hope this does not halt the enjoyment that you have with this blog.

Chinese New Years

2009-01-25T11:30:00.006-05:00

Happy Chinese New Years. It's the year of the ox.

I ending up going with a group of people to a few museums. I got to see some great artifacts from Korea's past. Okay to be honest, I was more of a time killer. Most of the stuff wasn't that interesting.

If you noticed the red in the flag, I think it's blood. I'm not a 100% sure, but lets just pretend it is.

This is a Korean water keeping clock. It's about 15ft tall and uses water and metal balls to keep time. At certain times Korean dolls will chime a bell or beat a drum.

These are interesting jars. They hold the placenta of past rulers. Yummy.

This me wearing a hanbok. Hanboks are traditional Korean clothing. I'm also standing in a traditional Korean pose.

Nothing like eating Chinese food for Chinese New Year.

I'm sure this isn't how your suppose to do it.

We ended up going to a classy bar. By classy, I mean cheap.

I love this dog. I wonder why it has the annoyed indicator on its forehead? He was trying to get us to go into a fancy Norebong. We wouldn't be tricked so easily.

Okay, the dog lured us into the Norebong. At least we got free ice cream.

Day of the Tentacle

2008-12-27T05:53:00.004-05:00

I know you have been waiting for this day. Wait no longer.

It's Christmas time

2008-12-25T10:16:00.012-05:00

First off. Merry Christmas. As a gift to you, I will actually post today.

I'll start with pictures of my apartment. In the first picture, we have my key less entry. Then we have the extra deluxe size bathroom/laundry.

Well my bathroom/laundry room isn't the greatest, but the room is sorta big.

Have enough space to put in a bed, couch, desk, dresser, and a TV. So the room isn't to bad.

Then again, the bedroom/entertainment room is also a kitchen/drying room. But if you can't be happy with what you got, then what can you be happy about? No complaints from me.

After a hard day at work, I figured I would grab myself a beer. I was nicely surprised to get a special side dish. In the states you might get free peanut if you're lucky. Over here you get these rice puff snacks. But lucky me, I got this extra special side snack.

And no, I'm not doing anything illegal. You have to suck the living snot out these little sucker. And trust me, I chose the word snot for a reason.

I was showing Robert (co-worker) around Seoul near city hall. I took a snap shot of this historical structure....

Then I decided to mock Korea a little.

Good times.

I also been to this really cool hookah bar since I been back. Nothing like favored tobacco while drinking Absolute.

Well I hung out with Robert for Christmas. We went into Seoul and got my Christmas gift. A free hug from a cute girl. Right on.

This would be the second time I encountered the Free Hugs movement since I been to Korea.

The building to the left would give Chevy Chase a run for his money for the most Cristmas lights on a building.

This water fountain made from Christmas lights was also cool. So why not take a pic?

One way to spread religion.

Living with others

2008-12-14T21:08:00.003-05:00

Life isn't so lonely now that I have pets. I picked up two hamsters. The first one is named Dan and the other one is Guile.

I'll post a picture of my apartment soon. I got my couch, desk, and dresser from my last apartment. So it's sort of a nice place to live.

A fresh start

2008-11-30T10:13:00.005-05:00

I'm back in Korea. I'm at a new school and a new location. The new school looks great but my apartment isn't a good as I hoped it would be. It's a bit bigger, but the setup isn't as nice as my old place. I'm trying to get some of my old stuff at my last apartment. Well, the location is a bit nicer. I'm right in the middle of a busy city. There is lots of things to do and plenty of places to drink.

Everywhere Around the World

2008-10-23T17:47:00.003-04:00

I'm back in America!! Yes, that's right all the Taco Bell I can eat.

It was on heck of a plane ride coming back. It took me somewhere around 16 hours; thanks to a delay in Atlanta. Sorry I didn't mention that I was coming back. I wanted to keep it a secret from my mother. And it was on hell of a surprise!

I got in around 1 am on Sunday night. My brother picked me up. I slept at his house and woke up early to surprise my mother at church. I wish I took a picture of her face. She had a look of total shock and misunderstanding. After the 30 seconds to understand that I was really home, she started crying. I guess church wasn't the best place to tell her I was back.

So, you might be wondering what I'm doing home. Well I decided to work at a different hagwon for several different reasons. I am going back to Korea. I am going to work at another hagwon, but under my terms. The new school doesn't start until December 1, so I'll be here for a while. We'll see if I can adjust living back in America.

I only been here for less than a week and I'm already bored. Hmmmm.

The Comeback?

2008-10-13T15:28:00.002-04:00

Korea is a country of change. New buildings are being built all of the time. For example. Look at the picture above. It only took a little bit of time for the view to change from this; to the view below.

That's right. As I kept walking, my view change from the construction site to buildings that were just built. But to be serious for a moment, Korea is like the first picture. There is always something being built and it's usally complete in less than a year or two.

Walking around Korea you ofter see these people pushing these carts. This is part of Korea's retirement plan (not really). These people push these carts and pick up recyclables. I'm not sure how much they make but I don't think it's very much.

Ah, HomEver. One of the nice things about going shopping at a Walmart/Meijer wannabe is the food court. It kicks ass. The menu is made from 6 different kitchens and it's fairly priced.

I don't know if this is used to prevent theft or to get people to return carts but the carts are chained together. To seperate the carts, you have to put a 100 won coin into the slot. You get the coin back when you lock it back up.

I went out to eat with some of Young's new co-workers. They were a cool group of guys. They invited me to join in thier eating contest. I went up againts the champ.

The burrito eating contest. Who will win? Who will get all of the glory?

vs (I have to upload my video later)

Okay, it was no contest. I was impressed at the speed. The sad thing was that the resturant best time was under a minute. The top five are all American. We should be proud.

Too much steak?

2008-10-04T09:28:00.006-04:00

Steak in Korea cost a lot! If you followed the news, you might have heard of about all the protests because of US beef being sold in Korea again. For the post part the protests have stopped, and Korea has been selling US beef for the last three months. So... Where's the beef?

Because most stores are afraid of public protests, they refuse to sell any US beef. This means, I still have to pay outrageous prices. I love steak and all, but there is no way I'm paying $4-10 per 100 grams. I knew they where selling US beef because new articles talk about how it's flying off the shelves. So I searched the internet and found only three places where I might find it. There where all located in Seoul, so I set off. I found my US beef in an underground black market. Don't worry, they place wasn't too dodgy. Korea has a lot of markets like this, but this one in particular just sold a lot of US goods (most likely bought from US bases).

The butcher spoke no English (Why would he? He's in Korea) and I spoke no Korean (Why wouldn't I? Because I'm dumb). So, it was hard to get him to understand what I wanted. Well it didn't really matter. He was just selling one type of beef and I like the cut anyways. So how thick did I want my rib eye steak? Maybe 1/2 inch? Okay, he cut it an inch.... These are really huge steaks!

How much did I end up spending on 3 enormous steaks? $20. Of course you have to factor such thing as the cost of getting there and back. I also spent $2 on a bag of ice to keep my steaks cool on the ride back (which took about 2 hours). So add another $8 for a total of $28. Was it worth it? Yes! The cost of just one of my steaks would have cost me about the same in a store.

So, I got home and cut one steak in half (I said they where enormous) and put the rest in the freezer. I had to pan fry it because of my lack of a grill. Let my tell you; IT WAS GOOD! But then a strange thing happened. It was sitting in my stomach really heavy. I never really had a craving for rice after a steak, but I did now. Weird. So I cooked myself some rice and ate it with kimchi. I feel better now.

It's just strange having beef. I have beef some times, but it's in very limited quantities. My steak that I just ate is equal to all the unprocessed beef I had since I been to Korea. I sometime have beef when I go to Lotteria (McDonald's), but I hardly eat that stuff. Maybe my bodies rejecting it? Hmm. Well, I'm going to keep shoving it down my throat anyways. BEEF. IT'S WHAT'S FOR DINNER!

If come to Korea, you can enjoy some Cold Stone Ice Cream.

In case of an emergency, please calmly fight the several hundreds of people flocking to grab one of the few oxygen masks.

In a country where rice is the staple of their diet, you would think that finding rice would be easy. Well, it is if you have a microwave. There was only a small section (away from all the precooked rice) where they sold uncooked rice. I swear they were trying to hide it from me.

That's right. Dr. Pepper! And it's the original flavor.

Me and Young were bored, so we decided to go to Juan. To our surprise, they were throwing a huge concert. Sweet!

Then again, it was a free concert and way over crowed. We listened to a song or two. After that, we watched a movie instead. It was Hellboy 2. Yeah, we should have stayed at the concert.

Here is some proof that I'm am eating healthy and not starving myself. You can stop worrying (Mom).

As a final thought, I just wanted to show you something that is actually common on subway stations. These vending machines sell books. Do you still wonder why Asians seem smart?

Lobsters

2008-09-15T08:09:00.006-04:00

Hey there readers. What's new with you? It's been a while since I last spoke with you. So why don't I fill you in on what's going on in my life.

I went on another island trip with some friends. We went swimming and sun bathing. As you can see, the ratio of guys to girls was good. The white girls in this picture were crazy, and even I won't repeat some of the things they said.

With the end of Summer Intensive, I had to say good bye to Tommy. Most of the teachers went out to dinner to send him off.

Tommy gets all the girls with his good looks.

The girl on the left is Narae. She decided to become a full time teacher.

Natalie is showing off her skills at pool.

Tommy is going back to Canada to finish college. I'll miss this crazy kid.

LOL. This kid has a mullet! You don't see too many of these in Korea.

I finally broke down a bought a "man bag". Say what you want but I like it. Having to carry around my wallet, cell phone, camera, and my PSP is more than I can carry in my pockets.

Okay, this is uber cool. This combines two great things into one. Do you like playing the crane machine? Do you like Lobster? Then you'll love this machine.

Crap! I guess I have to settle for ramon noddles.

Sight Seeing + Riot Police + Caribbean Bay

2008-08-17T06:05:00.012-04:00

I was really bored and had nothing to do. So I set off to Seoul to see more of Korea. I took my trusty camera and went on the subway. I had no plans and no idea what I was doing. I figured that Korea had a lot to offer and I'll find something.

So I took the subway to City Hall. This area hold many statues and a museum so it was quite intresting.

Another picture of Korea's national treasures. How many do they got?

A lot! Here is another national treasure.

I traveled all the way to Korea and had the pleasure of seeing Mexican Art.

So this is City Hall. Notice how all the police busses are lined without gaps in between them.

This is a family friendly place.

The riot police are strutting around. Getting ready for a protest. Good times.

The riot police in full form. I got down to the subway just in time. The video below show the situation about 3 minutes later.

The problem with this situation; I bet almost of the kids in the riot gear would be protesting if they weren't doing there two year manditory military service.

This is a Buddhist temple next to COEX.

Cool dragon and drum. I think they use the drum for ceremonies and to wake people up.

Wake up people!

The hung up a lot of lanterns. It looks cool, but I think they might have over done it.

This is a picture of an ancient bell and clock.

This is a life size statue of Buddha. He was really tall for being an Asian.

Caribbean Bay. Not much to say about this water park. It's next to Everland and both are own by Samsung. Young and I chose to go at a very bad time. The weather was cold and rainy. So you would think that the place wouldn't be that crowed. Well, we were wrong. It was probably the most crowed place I have ever been. They had workers directing people on the walkways (not lines for rides but where people need to walk from one place to the other). Lines took for ever and the wave pool was in essence a death trap. Other than that, it was okay.

Everland, Free Hugs, Jump, and Treasure

2008-08-05T09:25:00.006-04:00

Well, I don't get three day weekends very often so I try to make the most of it. Now my title suggest a lot but I only planned for one of them. Well, that isn't true either. Young and I planned to go to Caribbean Bay. Caribbean Bay and Everland are right next to each other so I suggested to both a day or two before we left.

It was a tiring day/trip. I had to get up early and I had over an hour train ride. Of course it was so crowded, I stand up the whole time. I meet Young and we went looking for the bus we had to get on. That took an extra hour. Damn road construction and Korea's lack of signs to their largest amusement park made it hard to find. We got on the bus and had to stand up for the hour bus ride to the park.

We got the park and decided to get the combo pass for Everland and Caribbean Bay. It was around $20 cheaper. We were told that Caribbean Bay was really crowed and didn't think much about it. It was summer and it was hot; of course it was going be busy.

I decided that we should go to Everland first (my mistake). Everland was cool but not as great as I thought it would be. It's a little like Disney land but much smaller and without the mice. We went on a few rides and went through the animal attraction part of Everland. The animal attraction part of Everland was better than I thought it would be. We even went on a bus ride that got us close to lions, tiger, and bears (oh my!). The driver threw some apple slices and made the bear do a few tricks even.

It was getting hot and we wanted some relief. Time to go to Caribbean Bay. But the relief didn't come. We were told it was busy, but I never needed to get in line to enter an amusement park before. Well the line didn't look to big, so we waited. After a half hour or so, the line moved and we got to the front of the gate. That's when we were told that we needed to get a waiting ticket! Damn! I should have known that the people having a picnic wasn't standing in line for a reason. So we get our waiting ticket and got pissed off. It said that we couldn't get in until 5:30 and the part closes at 8:30. Yes, that's three hours, but if there was a line just to get in... Well we decided that it was a waste of money and got 1/2 a refund. We went back into Everland and did almost everything they had to offer.

So I guess, I don't have to mention that for most of the rides there was a 1/2 to 1 hour wait. Well, I just want to clarify I was getting tired of standing. That why I was overjoyed to stand on the bus again for the ride to the subway station. That might sound annoying but not as annoying as the bus dropping us off at a random location. I mean, I saw the bus stop where we first got on. The bus driver thought it prudent to stop only 4 or 5 miles form there. Great.

A little lost and a little tired, Young and I went for any subway station we could find. Then the best part to the day happen. A girl holding a sign saying "Free Hugs". Now, it would have seemed more random to me if I didn't know about the free hugs campaign (http://www.freehugscampaign.org/). Well, you know me. I never pass up anything that I can get for free.

So around noon on Sunday, I get a text message from G.O.A.L. (http://goal.or.kr/eng/) that there giving free tickets to JUMP (http://www.korea.net/News/Issues/issueDetailView.asp?board_no=18141). Sweet! More free stuff. The play was great and very funny. It's made so anyone can watch the play (very little language barrier). They even spoke some English.

After the play, I went to the park near the theater. It looked old fashioned and I figured there be something to take a picture of. I was right. This park stood for "The Proclamation of Korean Independence" or something like that.

There was a bunch more of these pictures but I don't feel like loading them all up. You get the idea. Invaders beating up poor Koreans and Koreans fighting back, taking names, and opening up a can.

Okay, this is me standing in front of Korea's National Treasure #2. The glass is there to protect the sacred monument from idiots like me that think climbing the tower would be fun.

Dirty vaction

2008-07-30T04:52:00.002-04:00

Ah, the mud festival. It was entertaining to say the least but not as great as I wished it was. I went with Natalie through Adventure Korea.

I woke up to the sound of my cell phone going off. Crap! I didn't set my alarm clock correctly. I got up and took a quick shower and met Natalie. We grabbed a taxi and headed off to the subway station. We were running late but we made it to the bus on time.

We took the bus to our first stop. There, we had to take a five kilometer run though the mud. Well, it wasn't as great as it sounds. There was less mud and more shells then I expected. Because the first 1/2 kilometer was very muddy, we were told to take off our sandals. It was to prevent us from losing our sandals. Well, it sounded like sound advise. That was until we started running. The muddy section was great. We sunk in half way to our knees and had to go over a few obstacles. Then the mud turned into sandy beach. It was really nice. I was a little tired and need a break from such grueling work. It was after the first kilometer that I found that not having foot protection to be a problem. The beach became more and more littered with shells. I could avoid a few but soon all of the beach was just shells. Man, a 4 kilometer walk through razor sharp shells was just what I wanted.

Okay, it wasn't really 4 kilometers. After a while I was a little pissed off and tired. I took a few short cuts here and there. I still got the metal for completing it though.

The second stop faired better. We got our hotel room (four people to a room, a TV, and floor mats for bed). So it wasn't perfect but it was cheap. Anyways, I didn't plan to spend most of my time there.

Natalie and I headed out to the muddy beach. To our surprise, it wasn't muddy. That's right! The mud festival was held at a nice sandy beach. There was a section where there was mud. People got muddy form the mud they brought in. Too get muddy you need to walk through the tub they filled with mud or paint it on your body with brushes. Hmmm?

Well, the water was nice. We jumped in and played in the water. It was even fun for a while. That is, it was fun before the started the monsoon sirens. Of course the sirens didn't stop people form being in the water or us either. It was just loud and sorta annoying. So you might ask if there was a monsoon or not. Well sorta of. It rained really hard and it was sorta windy. Then it cleared up about an hour later. Then it rained off and on for the rest of the trip.

At nightfall we went to a concert that had MC Sniper (a Korean rap band). It was cool but I didn't understood a thing. We walked around the beach and found people to hang out with. Nothing like being around with other dunks.

Even later that night, we ended up back to the concert place where there was a rave going on. Boy, I don' t know why I go to places that play techno.

got to teach class more latter.

Nothing exciting

2008-07-09T14:42:00.005-04:00

Well nothing to post about yet. It's been a while so I thought I give you a little update.

I went scuba diving a few weeks ago. Now before you get all excited, it was only in a swimming pool. It wasn't that much fun but it was interesting. I found it very easy to do and wonder why you have to have so much training to get a diving licence. I think it's just a racket to get money, but maybe it's just easier for some people than others.

One girl at the dive session seemed to have trouble. She kept surfacing to air. How hard is it to breathe in and out through you mouth and look at a few gauges?

Proof I did it.

Well, teaching English has been a trip lately. A lot of teachers left the school for one reason or another. What makes it hard is it's right during finals! Oh well. I just had to put in an extra 8 or 12 hours the last few days just for checking homework (sorta been putting it off). Now I might get a few more.

I'm really looking forward to the mud festival. I really need something to get my mind off school. I'm a little pissed off at the director at our school. We have to work the following Saturday. I planned on going on a summer trip to the lower part of South Korea but now that's ruined. We have next Thursday off, so she didn't want to lose a work day. The BS about that is that we still have to come in. We're going to have an orientation for summer intensive. The meeting is suppose to be a few hours but Natalie said that it'll be more likely six. Great! That's worth having the day off for.

My Busy Weekend

2008-06-22T02:02:00.008-04:00

So this weekend I went rafting/bungee jumping with Adventure Korea (http://www.adventurekorea.com/). Let me start by telling you how hellish it was getting up at 4:30 A.M. to get to the meeting spot on time. I usually go to bed at four in the morning. I tried to be smart about it and went to bed around 2 A.M. I figured if I could get at least one REM cycle in I'll be at least a little rested.

Well no luck. I kept telling my brain to go to sleep but it kept yelling at me that it wasn't bedtime yet. So what could I do? I just laid on my be with my eyes closed and my brain going a mile a minute. My alarm clock rang and I got up and took a shower. Great! I'll spend my day without any sleep. Terrific!

I got on the bus and met a group of nice people. For the most part, everyone seemed cool. I was only bothered by an over chipper, can't stop talking girl sitting across from me. She, in fact, was really cool. I just wasn't in the mood (cranky from no sleep).

It took us about 2 hours to get to out destination. I ended up talking most of the ride there with Kevin, Michele (hyper girl), and Holly. The girls seemed to lover their teaching jobs. Even though they teach kindergarten, they seem to love all their kids. Kevin, on the other hand, hates the little kids he's teaching and looking forward to teaching adults. I'm somewhere in between.

We get to our destination and split up into group of seven. Kevin joined me with five other people (I can't seem to recall their names). We get our two Korean tour guides who can't speak much English.

We get our basic commands that we can understand and set off on our journey of fun. Okay, it wasn't really that much fun but it wasn't really bad either. I expected a little more rapids and less time paddling. Of course, I might just be me; I really don't like to do anymore work than I have to.

If it was just rafting, I would have said the trip sucked, but there was more to it. We swam a little bit and played games. At one point they flipped some of the rafts over and made a slip n slide. We also played a game of wrestling. I got up on the upside down raft and tried to push Kevin off of it. Of course it only took a few seconds for Kevin to be in the water (I held onto him as I fell off). Then there was another game where we sat at the edges of the raft and just used our feet to push the other side off. Again, I have the pleasure of going into the water first.

Here is a picture of the people who came on the trip. Of course this doesn't include the 50 other Koreans going rafting at the same time. Oh, the look of suprise they had thier faces. I bet most haven't seem so many white people in thier lives.

Look at the view man! The location was really cool. The walls of the river were really high and just awsome.

After the rafting trip, we washed and changed our clothes. We got a free meal (well it was included in the price) which seemed great. But if you really think about it, is it a good idea to eat before you bungee jump??

So we got on the bus and rode for another hour. I was told that we were only 10 miles form the DMZ. As I looked out the window, I saw the Korea that was in my mind before I came here. Korea: rice fields as far as the eye can see.

The bus dropped us off at the bridge where we would bungee jump. That when we found out there was different prices. There was the full body harnes for $30, ankle for $35, and the couple jump for $100.

So my mom didn't want me to go bungee jumping. It looked a bit dangerous but the jump isn't really that high.

Yes, this is me.

Natalie and I went to The Fish Doctor. This is where fish eat the dead skin off of your feet.

Soccer game:

Crazy Koreans and thier makeup.

Can you "Feel the Soccer"?

You got to love soccer. The game ended 0 to 0. No winner. A tied game without a shootout. Wow, I wonder why it's not more popular in the States?

2008-06-15T13:38:00.003-04:00

I was raised in Grand Blanc (near Flint) and love America. I knew I stood out but my family and friends never made me feel that I never fit in. It was only in Korea where I felt both a part of the crowd and left out. I prefer standing out from the crowded. It was nice at first (blending in) but now I'm very jealous of my white friends. They have people coming up to them just because their white. I want that!

In America, only a few people would comment on my race. I do find it funny how fascinated some people can be about Asia and Asian people. Most white/black/Mexican/etc. will ask questions to me that they wouldn't ask anyone else. When I meet someone new, they will ask if I'm Chinese,Japanese,Korean or something else. Really! When was the last time they asked what part of Europe, Africa, etc. are you from?

Of course it doesn't really bother me. I like making them look like a fool. I just tell them that their wrong and to keep on guessing(even when their right).
I only mention this because it seem that some Americans can except other races as American but not others.

The days of adventure.

2008-06-11T15:24:00.004-04:00

Well I been in Korea for over four months. It's about time I started getting to my adventures. I booked a whitewater rafting trip for next weekend and an island night stay this weekend. I would easily say that I'm not prepared. I don't have anything ready and I was planning to buy clothes for the trips.

To my great surprise, I lost weight. I mean inches off my waist. I have to always where my belt on my 32x34 pants or else show people my underwear. So for those of you who think people who eat rice (carbs), ramen (even more carbs), Samgyeopsal (Korean bacon) with salt, and alcohol can't lose weight, you're wrong.

UPDATE:
The trip to Saseungbong-Do Island was great. It wasn't what I expected but it was still a lot of fun. I went with through a website called Meetup.com (it's an American website but a few people in Korea use it).

Well I started the trip by meeting everyone at the Incheon Port. I never meet anyone before and had no idea of who would be coming. To my surprise, it was six girls and one other guy (good ratio). We boarded a ship that would take us from Incheon to a bigger island and from there to our island.

This is a bridge they are working on right now. I think it's another bridge that goes to Incheon International Airport. If I were to guess, it's going to be about 3 miles long. That's shorter than the 7 mile they have now.

This is the first island that we stopped at. We had to wait for our second boat to come.

A picture of most of the girls that came.

The second boat wasn't too big but it was only a ten minute ride to our island.

Nice, this is the beach we stayed at.

Why did we put up our tents so far from the water? Well, believe it our not, we had to put the tents here so they wouldn't get wet. The tide goes out about a quarter of a mile!

This is us getting ready for dinner. It was a great meal. Kimchi stew with spam, rice, and samgyeopsal. It was a really nice feast. What surprised me was the ability of these slim/tiny korean girls packing away more food then me.

A few more picture of the landscape. Great looking island, right?

But alas, we couldn't stay forever. So here is my last pic of two of the girls as we made our way back home.

Another year older

2008-06-01T16:34:00.003-04:00

It was my 27th birthday! Man I'm starting to get old. So to celebrate we went out and had a giant crab. It was cool. Not only did I get to choose the crustacean but I also got to fish him out of the crab tank.

Later that week we went out for chicken at Uncle Charlies. They had this huge mug outsite that got my hopes up. The restaurant unfortunately didn't have a beer this size. I claim false advertising!!

Here is a picture of me while I was in Dongdaemun. The temple behind me is supposed to be one of the many "Korea's National Treasures".

Natalie and I went shopping for clothes at COEX. COEX Mall is an underground shopping mall and is the largest shopping centre in Seoul. It has a huge movie theater, several different food courts, a large aquarium attraction, and the Kimchi Museum. I forgot about the Kimchi Museum but we did go to the aquarium (pics above). There was also a skating rink. It was small and only had crappy skates but I can't complain. It only cost us $1 for unlimited time. Of course we only did it for 15 minutes.

Although we went for clothes, I ended up getting nothing there. Most of the clothes were way to expensive for me. Natalie got a shirt. We hurried up and went to Hondae before the trains stopped. We went for drinks and ended going back to M2 (a techno dance club).

Changes

2008-05-13T03:42:00.002-04:00

I been thinking about it for a while but I feel different here in Korea. I believe I'm more outgoing, more engaging, and more bold. It's not a fresh start but it's like a new beginning.

I'm still the same person. I have the same goofy and dry humor. I often make my sarcastic comments (even though most people don't get it). I even have the same apathy for work. Where I differ is who I let in as friends. While I was in the States, I only let a few people become good friends. I let everyone else stay as acquaints. I never worried because I knew I could always call on them to hangout. But now, I'm stripped of that comfort. I'm forced/free to make new friends.

I feel less shy talking to new strangers. I wasn't that bashful meeting new people, but I relied more on my friends for comfort. It feels less strange meeting people online and even on the street. It becoming my new hobby even though I'm still new at it. I want to see if I can make a lot of friends and become more sociable.

In Korea, I started a new life even if my stay isn't permanent. I want to see if I can avoid some of my past mistakes and grow into a better person.

Korean Traditional Liquor Festival

2008-05-04T03:25:00.006-04:00

As great as the title sounds, it wasn't as much fun as I thought it would be. Sure I got to see old customs and classical korean houses, but where was all the liquor? Haha. There was one tent that showed the old method of how to make soju. It tasted very strong.

The festival was small and there wasn't as much to do. It was okay though. I finally got to suck up some of that Korean culture.

Young's Birthday Party

2008-04-27T15:21:00.003-04:00

Same thing as last week but different birthday. It was Young's birthday on Thursday. So we had drinks at Andy's place again. We didn't have five orders of food like we did last time, but it was still fun. As you might have guessed, we did have Korean cake again. But not to over do, Andy's mom just took out a frozen chocolate pie left from Natalie's birthday and lit one sparkler.

We did the party right on Friday. Young, Lee, Natalie, and I went to Seoul. Like moths to a flame we went to Hondae, again. But we went there for good reason. We were meeting people up there.

We meet up with Lee II for drinks. He brought his friend with him. He is Vietnamese and can only speak French and English. I really don't know how Lee II became friends with him. He was cool though. We also named him Ralph later in the night.

Here is a picture of Lee and Lee II at Gold III (a bar). BTW, we changed Lee II name to Logan. It saves on confusion and Logan is a bad ass name.

So we had a few drinks and meet Lucy later that night. She had a posse with her and they seemed pretty cool. So we had a few drinks with them and led them to the glass norae bang. I was super hyped up to act crazy in front of the window. But sadly, all my dreams came crashing down when I found out that our group was too big for a window room. So I had to settle for just a large regular room.

Natalie and Young getting the party started by singing "Get the Party Started".

The guy to the left is Knobby and to the right is a polish guy (I don't remember his name). Polish Guy can drink like no one I've ever seen before. Sadly he couldn't sing to save his life. But that didn't stop him from trying; even when it wasn't it wasn't his turn.

In this picture, the girl to the left is Knobby's friend (I don't know/remember her name) and the girl to the right is Polish guy's Fiancé (again, I don't know/remember her name).

Okay, so the girl in the middle is Lucy Lu (real name) and to the left is Ralf.

Afterwards, we went to Tin Pan (a bar/dance club). Of course yours truly had a good time dancing on the the table with Lucy.

The trains don't start until 5:30 in the morning, so we always stay out late. It was around 6 when we came up with ideas for English names for Lee II and his friend. I think Logan is a great name but we must have used up all our brain power thinking of it. Even though there is nothing wrong with the name Ralf, I still don't think it fits well for a Vietnamese-French.

Natalie's Birthday Party

2008-04-20T10:47:00.004-04:00

Okay folks, these are pictures of us celebrating Natalie's birthday at Andy's place (restaurant). Like I said, Andy's mom is very cool. When she heard that it was Natalie's birthday, she made her a cake Korean Style.

Korea *sparkle*

We also went to Hondae to celebrate. If you can believe it, Lee was well enough to come out and party. He was sick for over a month, so it was a surprise when he said that he'll come.

Lee and Natalie enjoying their drinks.

Okay so I said that Lee came with us for the first time. Well he also prevented us from going to the window norae bang. LOL, see the people dressed up and singing in front of everyone.

Later that night we met up with Hotdog (we don't have a better name for him yet) and Austin Powers (I can't think of their real names). Natalie talked to Hotdog since she been here but never meet him in real life. He and his friend were cool.

China Town!!

2008-04-13T12:00:00.009-04:00

China town is only ten to twenty miles from my place. I just get on the subway and go for five stops. It's hard to miss because it at the end on the line (unless you go the wrong direction). As soon as you get off the train, you're only 50 yards from the gates of China Town!

The enterance to China Town.

This is a picture of 100 years of Korea and America Tready Memorial Tower in Jayu (freedom) Park.

Statue of General McArthur.

Click on the pic to be able to read it.

It's Young and me standing in front of a statue of Confucius.

A view of Incheon Harbor.

This is one of the landing points America came in at during the Korean War.

A street preformer doing his thing.

Random People

2008-04-13T10:55:00.003-04:00

We were eating at Andy's mother's restaurant last Friday. Andy was with other friends, so we didn't do anything to wild. But by chance, a group of people drank only part of a bottle of liquor and left. Now Andy's mom, being the cool cat that she is, came over and gave us the bottle which was over a quarter full. If you look carefully, you can see that it's Johnnie Walker Blue Label. If you don't know, it cost around $20+ a shot in the USA. In Korea, almost all hard liquor cost more. So this was extra special. I would hate to know what it would have cost us for this little treat.

This is Lee II. We names him that because we can't remember/say his first name. We also added a II because of Lee (the teacher). Natalie meet him online and he speaks English well. So he came with us to a norabang. I know, we seem to live there.

Natalie and I went bar jumping in Itaewon. Itaewon is cool because it mixes America, India, Greek, Mexico, and the Middle East all together. But it's also more of a place to eat then do stuff. So we went to Hondae. Now this place is a lot of fun. There's clubs and bars and a bunch more to do.

A pic of Hondae

After hitting a few clubs, we weren't sure where to go next. So, I asked this group of western people what's fun. They ended up being a cool group of guys, so we ended up hanging with them. Natalie was a little less impressed with them. She think some American are loud and crazy. I like that in a group. So after a while Natalie had a few Internet friends over and we separated for a while. I was drink and walking around with these people. Well, they were really drunk. People would start going off in different directions and sometimes they would get pull back. It was later when over half group had left that I had an issue. We went down into a club and they left without me. It pissed me off that they would without saying something but then again, I only met them.

I ended up meeting Natalie and her Internet friends later. We hung out with them until the trains ran again. Even though I got ditched, I still liked my night in Hondae. I really love meeting random people and doing crazy stuff like this.

Picture of the people we hung out with. The guys in the group were standing up and I didn't want to bother gathering them.

Waiter an order of girl, please

2008-04-10T12:38:00.005-04:00

So these are pictures of last Friday. Natalie and I went drinking with Andy and his friends. Grey is a really cool guy and speaks English very well. Andy's other friend David is cool too but much more relaxed. It seems weird for me to hang out with these guys because of the culture difference. They are NOT gay but they are touchy feely. Or in other word, they (mostly Andy)would put their arm around my shoulder, hand on my leg, or try to hold hands. I was more than shocked at first and bit put off by it. I know I'm in Korea so I have to be more excepting of how they behave. I'm at least thankful for knowing about this behavior before hand. Some of the boys in my younger class hold hands and hang off each other.

Anyways, Natalie and I went out with them till six in the morning. We drank a few bottles of soju and three orders of food while we waited for Andy to get off from work. Then, we hit a Norabang (of course). After that, we went to another bar. Andy want to change into nicer clothes and I didn't really know why. I was a bit tipsy by then. Andy comes back and we jumped into a taxi. We ended up going to a dance club, or so I thought.

Now to be fair, I was a little drunk. The club as very high class. They had nice tables and a great dance floor. This was the first time I was in a night club where there were so many tables. The waiter sat us down at the table and everyone started to talk. It was sweet. So music starts playing and Natalie goes out on the dance floor. So I think I was only with Andy when the waiter brought the first girl over. Yeah, the waiter goes around the tables and find girls to drink with you.

I know it sounds great but there is one small problem. I don't speak Korean. So I let Andy do most of the talking. I ended up going on the dance floor and made of fool of myself. It wasn't just my really bad dancing. Apparently I was trying to get some girls to dance to no effect.

It was around 5:40am when we left the club which turns out to be some dating club (or something). Andy wanted to keep going and drink some more. I said no (I know, I can hardly believe it too). Of course it would have been cooler if I didn't had to say "No, it 5:40 if the F-ing morning." over and over again. So we left Andy and I got home a little past 6:00.

Andy, soju, clubbing, ect.

2008-03-28T14:22:00.010-04:00

Looks to me that someone had too much soju.

This stupid crane machine has been stealing my money. I keep watching the cane pick up prizes only to release it right before the door. I wonder if people really win at this or if the owner just put the empty winning prize boxes on top of the machine.

Here is Young lining up his shot at the pool hall.

Look at what my kids made. They colored the fish and I made the background. It looks great.

Well, it would have if I planned it out better. I couldn't fit all the fish on the background so I figured I expand a little past it. The wall needed more stuff on them anyways.

Some of my students killing time by playing hangman.

A quick picture of one of my classes before the kids leave for the day.

Fish for sale. Dried, smelly fish for sale.

My new cell phone rocks but I only have four numbers on it.

I know I take a lot of pictures of food but this place was great. Look at all the side dishes (remember the side dishes are free). We paid for the meat and between the three of us it only cost us $6 each.

If you crave a hamburger, you can get it but don't expect it to taste like McDonald's.

Well, its been a while since I last posted. It's been a crazy couple of weeks. Ewha (the school I work at) just finished with mid-terms. That meant that we had to make test, grade them, and fill out report cards. Plus, we had a few changes to our classes. I am now teaching the higher classes debate. Well sorta of.... I'm teaching them the structure of debate (which is a lot less fun). I also lost my 99 class because Natalie hated her 96B class. Patricia switch our classes. Now I'm stuck with them. They're not as bad as I heard. Well at least not yet.

There this Korean BBQ place we often go to. Natalie wanted to drink and so did I. We went a little bit crazy and had two bottles of soju. After we ordered our second round of food, we tried to get our waiter to take a few shots with us. At first he didn't want to, but we got him to come around. He took two shots with us and we got to know him a little bit. He only knew a few English words so it was mostly a guessing game. After he found out that I was close to his age, he wanted to become friends. Sure why not? After we finished our meal, Natalie wanted to hit a norabang. We tried to convince the guy to come with us but he had to work.

We went to the closest noabang, which is only a couple yards away. It was only half an hour later when the waiter came into our room. He couldn't stay because he was still working but he wanted to go out drinking with us. So we agreed to go after he got out of work. Well, we hardly know any Korean and he knew only a little English so you would think we wouldn't be able to understand each other. And you are correct. He would say something in Korean or we would say something in English and we both would answer mollah (Korean for I don't know/understand). Ofcourse, we would say soju because we all knew what that meant. So we drank for a bit and then .... Norabang again. It was an intresting night. We asked the guy to give us an English name that we can call him by. He choose Andy so I know have a Korean speaking friend. All I have to do now is learn Korean.

A pic with me and Andy.

While we were in the bar with Andy, we got pondegi (silk worm larva) as our sidedish.

Well I'm here in Korea so I gave it a go.

Yeah, it tasted pretty awful.

Young, Natalie, and I went to visit Yunyoung a few days later. I started off innocent enough. We had a nice meal and then went off for a few drinks.

Picture of us enjoying an American meal. I had a steak burger and nachos.

Here we are hanging out at Yunyoung's friend's bar. It was nice place and the drinks had a good price.

Oh nooo. We went clubbing! The place was crazy. I was so crowed you couldn't move. Forget this... We went onto the stage where there was more room.

The view from up on stage. The club was only a little bit crowded.

We cooled off a posh coffee restaurant. We had to wait for the subway to startup again so we slept for a few hours here. We got home around 7am. Well it was a crazy night.

Up too late

2008-03-15T07:57:00.004-04:00

I was Thursday night and the Norabong was calling us. It started after we got out of school. Natalie, Young, and I felt like eating so we ate at a diner we often go to. With our stomachs full, Natalie and I felt like drinking. We knew of a restaurant that seemed to have great beer prices near the place we go play pool.

It's a 15 minute hike to the place, so Natalie suggest we go to a shop and get ourselves a beer for the walk. Of course, I jumped at the suggestion. I grabbed a nice size can and Natalie got herself some kind of milkshake mixed drink. As we left the shop, we started to think that drinking on the streets might be illegal. Even though Korea is know for it's drinking and drunk people, none of us ever saw someone drinking on the street. Even though we thought it was illegal, we drank it anyways. Can't waste alcohol.

We get to the beer place and sit down at a table. A pitcher of beer for $5, that's a great price (beer cost a bit more here Korea than it does in Michigan). Well we figure out why the price was so good. When you are in Korea, you have to buy food when you order beer. Well, we just ate less than a half hour ago and didn't want anything too big. Well of course, everything was expensive and ended having to get a huge basket of chicken. Well can't waste food, so we ended up eating everything.

Since Young doesn't drink and Natalie forcing me to drink most of the beer, I felt pretty damn good. So I felt good and we had time to kill.... That's when we heard the sirens call. Norabong! We found this norabong that was really cheap. Great we thought. We were singing and we were given more time. Great! We sang some more and again we were given more time. Good. Then more time passed and even more time was given. OK. Then we go more time and more time. This was getting ridiculous. We started at 1 am and got out around 5 am. This is crazy for a school night (or day). We got home and I was dead tired.

The the same afternoon, I had a hard time getting up. I think the lack of sleep got to me because I was tired most of the day. Lee, Young, Natalie, and I went to dinner. It was a good time . It was Friday night at last so of course we wanted to go out. We went and played pool. It was around 1 am when Lee decided he wanted to go home. So instead of going home like a rational person, the rest of us went to the same norabong. It was Friday night, so we figured that we weren't going to have the same crazy amount of extra time like we did last time. We were wrong. We ended up leaving around six in the morning. That's 4 extra hours that we didn't pay for.

I complain but it was a lot of fun. We even had this random drunk guy coming into our room. He even paid for us to have extra time.

A picture of Lee eating some cold noodles.

Natalie cutting up our dinner.

Here is a picture of Bungeoppang. I get four of these little suckers for $1.00

Four hours at a norabong makes people do strange things.

I was suppose to wake up at 9 am and meet Yunyoung. She was moving to her new apartment and wanted to give me some stuff. I slept through my alarm. Lucky for me Young has a cellphone. He get a call from Yunyoung and woke me up.

My place without my clothes on the floor kicks ass.

Things to see in Korea

2008-03-12T13:02:00.006-04:00

Here is a sign I thought was funny. The sign says "Hey June!! Didn't you see my panty and brassiere? Well.... Is that yours? No! How about this one? It's mine!! My underwear!! Why don't go to Yes? Yes? Yes!! Yes' Let' go to Yes!!!!"

We went to a Vietnamese restaurant to have lunch. Here is Lee and me having a spot of tea before the meal came.

The appetizers were good.

You might notice that Randall didn't make it to lunch with us. Okay, he wasn't invited.

Here's a pic of what I ate. It was a bit spicy but I like it that way.

I think we go here all the time!?

The bag lady of Incheon.

The kids school bus. It's basically a large yellow van.

We had pizza today. Here was the dog guarding the place.

He reminded me of Stowe (a dog my neighbor used to own).

Bonus!! We found a couch that some one threw away. Two hours of washing and scrubbing, and it's like brand new.

And now for your entertainment, a street vendor selling his wares with the art of dance.

The Encounter

2008-03-07T13:09:00.008-05:00

Well today was a day of chance. I'll explain about it a bit later. First some pictures.

This omelet is filled with rice and a few other ingredients. It isn't spicy or anything, but it tastes great. No, it's not gravy on top but it some kind of sweat sauce.

There is a door at my school that leads to a balcony . Can you guess what I do there?

This is the reception hall at my school. If you look at the lower right corner, you will see the toilet paper. This is a convenient way of letting everyone at the school know what you're about to do.

This is the infamous Randall.

This is Carlla (I have to check spelling). She came around the same time Lee did. She doesn't do much with us after school because she's married. Doesn't marriage sound like fun? BTW, she is my new smoking buddy. I'm glad I don't have to quit smoking.

Ah, my second street vendor meal. What weird exotic food did I choose? Well the one on a stick of course. I turned out to be a Korean version of a corn dog. Sorry, I don't have a picture of my first street vendor meal. It was Bungeoppang (a fish shaped pastry with sweet bean paste in the middle). I was too good to waste time taking a picture of.

I finished the night with Natalie and Young at a Noraebong (Korean Karaoke room).

So why did I titled this post 'The Encounter"? I did it because of the events that happened before the Noraebong. We thought we got rid of Randall (remember no one likes him) because he left the school about a half hour before the rest of us. Lee, Young, Natalie, and I went out for Korean BBQ. Afterwards, we were trying to decide what we should do. We ended up going to a pool hall about a 15 minute walk from the school. We were having a good time. It was Natalie and me versus Lee and Young. Natalie and I ended up winning zero out of seven games.

We were playing our sixth game when Randall showed up with his only friend (as far as I know). It was really awkward, because Randall started playing pool without noticing us. The pool hall isn't very large but he picked the table next to us. Come on, how oblivious could he really be? We let play for about a minute or two before Lee said hello. Randall was totally surprised and began introducing us to his friend. We didn't want to be real obvious so we played another game.

Now I can't tell anyone how to play the game (because I suck at it), but Randall did two things that seemed... Randallish. When ever he leaned over the table to take a shot, he lifts his ass up in the air. It was like he was in jail and he was presenting himself to everyone. It was a bit funny and gross at the same time but nothing compared to what he did next. He had a difficult shot across the table that he couldn't reach. Any normal person would have grabbed the bridge stick, but not Randall. Did he sit on the edge of the table or lean over as far as he could? No. He climbed on the table and laid flat on it. He was practically humping the table! Even his friend looked embarrassed. We had enough and ended up leaving shortly after.

That was enough for Lee and so he went home (he's been sick a couple of days). Of course it was too early for Natalie, Young, and I. We couldn't go back to the pool hall so we did what we usally do...Noraebong !!

2008-03-05T11:10:00.003-05:00

Sorry, I guess I sort of lied about the pictures. I didn't really look through them. Some of them still looked good if they are smaller.

This is a picture of Seoul Tower. It was still day time when we were walking up to it.

We got to the tower about the time it got dark. They put a kick ass flame on the tower. Watch the movie and then then tell me it wasn't worth the climb.

Here is one the better pictures of Seoul. I was a great view. I just wished the picture turned out better.

We had Korean BBQ again. It seems like we eat it every day. This is a picture of what was left. I took it because I want to show you all the side dishes we got. The four of us ate our fill and it only cost us $6 each (plus no tipping in Korea).

We went bowling today. I amost got 200 in one of the games. Here is a Young, Natalie and Lee standing in front of the bowling alley with one of the locals. Who said Koreans were small?

I have Seoul

2008-03-01T09:15:00.006-05:00

So I went to Seoul today with Young and Natalie. The trip required us to use the subway. It was my first time using this form of public transportation so it was sorta cool. On our first stop, we went to this five story mall that was only electronics.

As we were walking in Seoul, I saw this resturant. I thought it looked wierd so I took a pic.

We went up Seoul Tower. It was a great view but I think I screwed up the settings on the camera. All the pictures look like crap. That's why I didn't bother posting them.

On the way back, the train got very pact. Lets see if you can spot Natalie in this clip.

Lee the new teacher

2008-02-29T21:22:00.004-05:00

Lee came in two days ago and Randall was jumping at the chance to meet someone new. He took Lee to Homever after school while we make an clean getaway for dinner. I felt sorry for Lee because I knew what Randall is like. Lee told us later that Randall was saying hello to everyone and how annoying his talking was. Well, that's Randall.

Picture of Lee. He's cool enough. He likes to drink; now if I could only get him to smoke.

Union's last day at our school (0h no! I won't have a smoking buddy). We all went out for dinner (without Randall) and enjoyed a night of drinking and Karaoke.

Changes

2008-02-27T10:03:00.004-05:00

I've been here only a short time and I have to get used to changes. Sam left shortly after I've arrived. Now Lee should be here today. Yunyoung is leaving this week (for a better job opportunity) and I think someone new is coming to replace her. The school is trying to replace Randell as soon as possible (the owner, staff, and children don't like him). It's just a weird time to be here.

I'm really getting the hang of teaching. I just wish I could teach myself how to read Korean just a easily. I'm planning on taking Tae Kwon Do classes now that Natalie said she wants to do it. That way, I'll have at least have one other English speaking person not knowing what's going on. By the time I get back to the USA, I should be pretty well rounded.

Two kinds of meal

2008-02-25T20:54:00.006-05:00

If you go to Korea, you can decide a nice meal like this:

It's Korea's version of beef stew andit tasted very good.

Or you can decide on a not so nice meal like this:

Yummm.... Pig intestines. Right. When you ask for the best thing on the menu be sure to know waht you're getting first. BTW, it tasted like just like little rings of fat.

2008-02-24T05:20:00.005-05:00

This is a $3 dollar meal I like to eat. It's really good.

This is me with most of the other teachers. It's me, Young, Natalie, and Yunyoung having Korean BBQ. Randal isn't there for some reason (read last post).

This is Homever. It's like the Wal-Mart of Korea. Notice all the workers there. It's makes Mejiers look stingy when it comes to free samples.

This is a nice picture of Incheon. I took it close to my apartment.

This is my first class of the day and also my homeroom class. Penny, Ivy, Gina, and Mary are a great group of students, though they can be quite shy. It is one of my smaller classes. Most of my classes have around 8 students.